United States | News & Politics

It’s 4:30 pm on a Monday as Colell Steele stands in front of the closed canteen window at Neuse Correctional, a medium-custody prison in North Carolina. He’s lined up to wait an hour before the canteen opens so he can purchase his usual: four postage stamps, at 78 cents each; two AAA batteries, each costing 22 cents, needed for listening to his AM/FM radio; and then whatever hygiene items he can afford with the rest, which usually isn’t much. Since Steele receives no money from back home, he must stretch the $4.90 he earns each week working as a media clerk who cleans tablets for his cellblock.

“Every blue moon I might buy a bag of chips or a soda,” Steele told me as we sat in a day room at Neuse. “I can’t afford much anymore because inflation has decreased the amount of food and supplies I can buy. I spend more to get less.”